Francine Hughes killed her husband on March 9, 1977, but was found not guilty because of years of domestic violence. / Lansing State Journal

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Francine Hughes of Dansville killed her ex-husband on March 9, 1977, but a jury found her not guilty by reason of temporary insanity due to years of domestic violence.

Her story was depicted in the 1984 TV movie “The Burning Bed,” starring Farrah Fawcett, based on Faith McNulty’s 1980 book of the same name.

Hughes poured gasoline on the bed Mickey Hughes was sleeping in and set it on fire. Later, she drove to the Ingham County Jail to report what she had done.

She had moved back in with him after he was in a serious car accident.

Her defense — that her actions were the result of the beatings and verbal abuse she had endured for more than a decade — brought the plight of battered women into the national spotlight, inspiring dozens of domestic violence laws. The battered-woman defense has been used countless times since then.

“I felt very light, clear-headed, free. This was the easiest thing I had ever done,” she told McNulty. “I picked up the gas can and unscrewed the lid and went into the bedroom. I stood still for a moment, hesitating, and a voice urged me on. It whispered, ‘Do it! Do it! Do it!’ I sloshed the gasoline on the floor. If I saw Mickey lying there, I don’t remember it. I don’t believe I looked at him at all.”

At 16, Hughes had dropped out of Jackson High School to marry the man who would become her undoing. They had four children before she divorced him on extreme cruelty grounds.